Neil Burridge has made a new and improved mould for casting the Ewart
Park swords which he sells.
One of the improvements is shortening the hilt, so that it matches
the originals, and also gives a better grip.
Also the weight as cast is lowered. Should you be interested in buying
one of these swords, then you can
find it for sale on his website (with further improvements):
http://www.templeresearch.eclipse.co.uk/bronze/swords_for_sale.htm

The blade

Original

Found: Figsbury Ring, UK
Age: late bronzeage (Ewart Park fase)

This sword was found inside a hillfort. Hillforts are basically hills
that are chosen for settlement, with defenses like palisades or
ditches and banks.

The blade before finishing

Here you can see the sword as I recieved it.

Finishing the blade

The hilt part matches the sword from Waterloo Bridge the
closest. So I ground the hilt to that shape as close as possible.

After grinding and polishing

The remaining part of the blade has also been finished.
This is all done using modern tools.

Holes for attaching the hilt plates

To attach the wooden hilt parts, holes have been drilled
for the rivets.

The cutting edge has been hammer hardened. For this, two
bronze dies were used, between which the edge was thinned down. This also
gave a hollow cutting edge as on the originals, which add to the sharpness
of the sword.

This is the finished blade, before the wooden hilt parts
are attached.

The rivets

To make the rivets, I've cast several bronze rods. These
need to be finished and cut to the right lenght.

The hilt

The hilt parts are made from ash wood. The shape I'm keeping
the same as on the previous sword. I've found several examples of bronze
hilted Ewart Park swords, which all have the same hilt and pommel shapes.
Therefore this was probably the standard hilt for Ewart Parks swords. The
hilt consists of two hilt plates and a pommel, which will be attached to
the back of the hilt. Here one of the hilt plates can be seen. All parts
of the hilt have been finished and are ready to be attached.

Here are the finished hilt parts. The wood has been impregnated
with lineoil.

The completed sword

The sword is fully finished. The hilt plates are riveted
on using the bronze rivets. The pommel is glued on the back of the hilt
plates using hideglue.